SCALE MODEL NEWS

David Jefferis inspects: Hasegawa’s 1:48 scale Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft is one of the best-looking aircraft models I’ve seen for a while, and a true candidate for an ultra-careful standard build, straight from the box.  Neat detailing As you can see from these pictures supplied by Hasegawa, the EA-18G is loaded with neat detail, including all those nicely recessed rivets, candidates for the most delicate weathering job possible, the object just to enhance and bring them out a little.  Cockpit detail A full suite of ordnance is supplied with the kit, and the various pods, tanks and missiles fill up the stores points on the wings and belly, to give the model that oh-so-nice ‘loaded for bear’ look. Cockpit detail for the two-seater EA-18G is well up to Hasegawa standards, and clearly shows the raised rear seat position. Hasegawa supplies a cleanly-moulded ladder, but you’ll have to supply your own figures from one of the 1:48 sets available. Full decal se...

SMN preview: Automodellismo is the only model show in the UK that specialises in cars. The show has been running for several years, but now the venue is that of the HaMeX show - Hanslope Village Hall, north of Milton Keynes, Bucks. Automodellismo is being organised by some of the HaMeX organisers, especially Paul Fitzmaurice of little-cars.com.  Tools for modelmakers Paul will be showing his selection of modelling tools and accessories, and also kits for sale. Vince Brown of Models For Sale, the main UK importer of Japanese auto exotica, will be there too, plus SMN’s own Mat Irvine, who will have kits from his vast collection for sale. There’ll also be models from Mat’s latest book Scale Car Modelling, due for publication in September. And of course, let’s not forget the hundreds of scale cars on display from various model clubs - Automodellismo promises to be a fascinating show. Opening times Public entry to Automodellismo is from 19.00-1630, entry being £2.00GBP, with free entry ...

Mat Irvine takes a less than serious view: Zingers date back to the 1970s, and are caricatures of cars and trucks. The vehicles have oversized engines, mounted on undersized bodies, an effect which gives them an original look, to say the least. Zingers originated by a roundabout route, as the idea actually came from model maker Dennis Johnson, as his entry in a competition run by the original MPC company in the early 1970s. His entries created such an impression that MPC decided to produce them as kits, coming out with eight-strong collection. They haven’t been available for 30 years or so, but now they have all been reissued by Round 2 models, the Indiana-based collectibles company that includes MPC among its group of brands. Detailing for a hot rod finish The Zingers are simple kits, though details can be added, just as you might with a more ‘normal’ kit. Drilling out the exhaust pipe ends so they look hollow is a good idea, as is carefully dulling the slick tyres with liquid cement ...

Mat Irvine inspects: When the first 1:25 scale truck kit came out, the sheer size of it was a great surprise to anyone used to much smaller car kits. This 'first of the many' was produced by AMT in the mid-1960s, and featured a US Peterbilt conventional ('conventional' denoting a car-style hood or bonnet). Since then, we’ve seen a whole range of trucks in 1:25 and 1:24 scales from model companies such as Italeri and Ertl, plus both US and German Revell companies.   Trucks kits aplenty Most of the main world truck manufactures have been represented in kit form, such as the US brands Ford, GMC, Kenworth, Peterbilt and White; we’ve also had European makes such as MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Scania and Volvo. Kits have included conventional and cab-overs, special vehicles such as wrecker trucks and tankers, plus a whole load of trailers to be hitched along behind. But one truck manufacturer that’s been near-invisible on the model stage has been International. Ertl did make a few ki...

Mat Irvine reviews: The well-known French modeller, Jean-Christophe Carbonel (otherwise known to all as ‘JC’), has produced another book for the French publisher, Histoire & Collections. The Story of Matchbox Kits homes in on a very British subject, and those whose French may not be up to scratch can breath a sigh of relief right now, as the edition I am talking about here is printed in English! JC at the UK IPMS Scale Model World, Telford. History of kits The Story of Matchbox Kits is dated ‘1973-2000’ which takes in the formation of Matchbox Kits out of Matchbox Toys, up until the name more or less ceased to exist. By then, the ‘kits’ part had been acquired by Revell-Germany, which continued to use the Matchbox name for while, though eventually the original kits were assimilated into the general Revell catalog. But the quarter-century plus during which Matchbox Kits were produced is well covered in the paperback book’s 84 full-colour pages, supported by 300 photographs. The boo...

It’s the end of the space trucking era, says David Jefferis: Forty two years after Armstrong and Aldrin stepped onto the Moon’s surface, it was touchdown for the Space Shuttle Atlantis , and the last-ever mission for the most complex spacecraft system ever built. There’s moaning and groaning by the bucketload, with headlines claiming the end of the US space program, but the reality is that the Shuttle, whatever its merits, represented a retreat from the Moon and true space exploration. For the Shuttle was a space truck to Earth orbit, and no further. Let’s hope that privateer companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, fulfill their ambitions and take humans onward and outward, to explore the High Frontier. Big model Back to the workbench, and of the many, many Shuttle models, which is the best one for the nostalgia-buff to assemble? Well, the real answer is that there is no single kit that’s head and shoulders over the rest, but there is one that’s big, d...

David Jefferis reports: Forty two years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon, while Michael Collins orbited high above in the Apollo Command Module. The Lunar Module (LM) was a four-legged aluminium-skinned contraption that was a true ‘space’ craft, designed for operation in a vacuum, with none of the smooth streamlined shape necessary for flight in a planetary atmosphere. Apollo 11 models There are various models available that commemorate the landing, including the 1:72 scale Airfix diorama kit that includes the LM, a neatly sculpted rectangle of cratered lunar terrain and logistics support in the form of surface instruments, a mixed bunch of astronauts, and Lunar Rovers. The terrain base is a good size, somewhat larger than an A4 sheet, at 348 mm (13.7 in) long x 247 mm (9.7 in). Cement, acrylic paints, and a brush are also included. Extra astronauts supplied by Airfix The Apollo 11 landing involved only Armstrong and Aldrin, so the supplied group of astronau...

Mat Irvine looks at a retro-engineered kit: The original Aurora company excelled at figures, especially TV and movie stars, but the company also made a whole range of animal kits. Sadly, few of these exist today, as mould materials and tool frames were often reused to make new kits when Aurora was at its height, or in later years when Monogram took over the tooling, many were considered no longer viable, and destroyed.  The original Aurora box-art, very different to the Atlantis version.  Back to the future now Today, several new kit companies - collectively  dubbed ‘The New Aurora’ - have come to the rescue. Surviving production tooling has been re-used, or where tooling has long gone, new versions have been made by retro- (or back-) engineering, in which new tooling is made by copying the parts of an original unbuilt kit. One of the newest companies specialising in reissuing or recreating old Aurora kits is Atlantis Models, and here we are looking at the company’s re-to...